It is critical, especially in certain facilities (e.g. schools, transportation hubs, parking garages, large facilities) for rapid transmission of information in the event of an emergency. In view of the increasing number of incidents at schools, children, teachers, patrons and employees have increasingly become vulnerable to violent events.
In responding to an emergency situation, time is of the essence to reach individuals in the threat area. For example, individuals may require urgent medical attention or individuals need to be moved out of the threat area for their safety.
One of the greatest challenges to emergency personnel is gathering information on the nature of the emergency/threat and determining the location of the threat and individuals in the area. For example, in a school, there may be an individual(s) that pose a threat to the students and/or teachers. The more information provided to emergency personnel quickly, the faster the emergency personnel can locate and care for the students and/or teachers.
In view of the increasingly threats of violence directed toward personnel, it would be highly advantageous to virtually instantaneously determine a location of personnel in an emergency situation and/or in the vicinity of a threat.
A number of various systems have attempted to provide emergency alerting systems with various levels of success. One system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,095 (Shields) entitled “Emergency Transmitter System.” Shields discloses an emergency transmitter system for enhancing personal safety within a predetermined geographical area. A plurality of fixed transceivers is located at selected locations and a battery-powered RF transmitter is issued to an individual. In the event of an emergency, the transmitter is actuated sending a coded signal identifying the individual. The fixed transceiver receives the coded signal and retransmits the signal to a central location identifying the individual and the location of the fixed transmitter. However, Shields is a system designed to function outside over a large area and can not accurately pinpoint the location of an individual(s) in a building.
Other systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,187 (Heckleman et al.) entitled Personal Security System Network with False Alarm Prevention and U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,366 (Figuereo et al.) entitled Remote Alarm System. Heckleman et al. and Figuereo et al. provide similar solutions as discussed in connection with Shields, but further discloses that the transmitter may only transmit a signal once to inhibit false alarms. This system again, can not function in an enclosed environment, such as a building with multiple floors, nor can it track individuals as they move throughout a building or predetermined area.
Another system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,471 (Kotlicki) entitled Emergency Alert System for a Protected Region Employing RF and Non-RF Signaling. Kotlicki discloses use of a transmitter that sends both an RF and non-RF signal to a receiver to assist in locating an individual in an enclosed environment such as, ultrasonic and infrared signals. The use of non-RF signals will allow the system to differentiate between multiple receivers picking up the RF signal that can penetrate walls and make precise location difficult. However, a problem with infrared and ultrasonic signals is they are limited by line-of-sight (LOS) and if there is no clear LOS, the system will not be able to precisely locate the origin of the signal as multiple receivers may pick up the RF signal.
Another system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,302 (Monroe) entitled Networked Personal Security System. Monroe describes a system where a personal alarm system can be worn by a user and may send a signal to a remote monitoring station. The unit includes a ID memory for identifying the user. For application where it is important to identify the location of the user, Monroe describes the process where various receivers positioned around the facility are provided as beacon transmitters that each transmit a unique beacon ID which is stored on the personal alarm. In the even of actuation of the alarm, the unique code corresponding to the saved ID is transmitted to the system to the system. Based on the unique code transmitted by the personal alarm, the system can determine where the user was when the signal was stored. In larger areas, such as schools, Monroe discloses that GPS technology can be used to locate the user. A major problem with this system is that in the beacon transmitter embodiment, the location of the user is identified by the beacon transmitter code transmitted, which may or may not be the current or real-time location of the user as they move throughout the facility. In the GPS embodiment, this simply would not function properly in a closed environment such as a building with multiple floors both above and below ground.
Still another system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,894,612 (Xydis) entitled Monitoring Method and System. Xydis discloses a system where a plurality of transponders are carried by individuals that can communicate with a plurality of transceivers positioned throughout an area. The transponders are provided with a code that identifies the transponder. In the event of an emergency, the transponder sends a signal containing the transponder code to the transceiver, which in turn sends a transceiver signal including a unique transceiver code to a monitoring system. However, the system disclosed in Xydis can not accurately pinpoint the location of an individual because all transceivers that receive the transponder code will transmit the signal to the monitoring system identifying the individual's position in multiple locations. This can severely hamper the efforts of emergency personnel to reach individuals quickly as it may not be clear if the individual(s) is/are on one floor or another.